Sometime in the last couple of weeks, I got to see The Flash and Green Arrow team up. There was playful banter, crossing of super hero teams, and clashes in physical and mental approaches to situations. In the big crossover event between CWs The Flash and Arrow, I got to see in live action what I’ve only seen in animated movies and comic books for DC characters. Marvel has been dominant with their franchise so far. They were first to get a team of heroes all on one screen to fight a larger threat and it was freaking awesome.

And I’m saying that as a DC fan. Since 2008, Marvel Studios has hammered down their connected universe and are even backed with Marvel movies from Fox and Sony. Even though not all of these movies are true cinematic gems, I still watched them, I probably enjoyed them, and then they all made lots of money.

So where’s DC in all of this? 2008 was the latest highpoint in the DC cinematic universe with the release of The Dark Knight. We got Green Lantern, The Dark Knight Rises, and Man of Steel, but let’s be honest, no one holds a close enough candle to say Avengers, Captain America 2, and more recently Guardians of the Galaxy. And comparitively, Marvel and the affiliated studios have been releasing up to three movies a year vs. Warner Bros./DC’s 1.

So all in all the cinematic candle won’t come close until 2016 when DC finally kicks off its connected cinematic universe with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And they still might not come close. But action stews further away from the silver screen. But what about the smaller screen candle?

DC has taken to television before. Besides animated favorites like Justice League, Teen Titans, and Young Justice, shows like Smallville, The Flash (1990), and Birds of Prey were somewhat popular. But now in this age of where superhero and comic book based media isn’t lame anymore, DC has really let their shows fly and their audiences with them.

So The Flash pilot leaked and the internet is exploding with all sorts of hype and freak outs. I was able to watch it and I have to say that I was absolutely floored with how good it was. Yes, it’s true that pilots are normally a lot stronger than the rest of the season due to it’s sole purpose of getting the series picked up and yes, one could worry about the drop in investment on quality writing and special effects in the rest of the episodes, and yes…yadda yadda yadda yadda. As I watched the Flash, I realized that despite even considering about worrying about all of these potential drop offs, this episode had so much fun, action, comedy, and set up all in one episode, it legitimately gives me hope that the creators of the Flash will be taking smart notes from Arrow’s book in continuing to create a full season’s worth of quality episodes. So here’s a break down of what I thought about the Flash pilot below.

This review contains no major plot spoilers, but does contain images from the leaded episode that can contain sensitive information.

Boy has it been an incredible past couple of weeks for DC Comics in the mainstream. Of course, there are always news when it comes to what’s new in the comic book world, but for everyone else, television and movies are often the only outlets to some of the comic book properties. 2014-2015 television shows are being picked up and their initial trailers are being released and movie news for 2016 and beyond. Among these, it appeared that NBC, CW, Fox, and Warner Bros got together and said, “the month of May is when we’re gonna release all the awesome DC-related news”. Of course they didn’t actually do that, but damn it, it sure looked that way. In today’s post, we’re gonna take a look at all the related news that was released that are DC Comics related.

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From before, I know I have said that I’m catching up on a plethora of television shows. Out of all the shows I caught up on: Luther, The League, Orphan Black, and American Horror Story, the show I was most hyped to be watching was Arrow. Of course some of these other shows are more acclaimed and might have more depth when written about, but being a DC fanboy, Arrow gets it’s own Banana Scoop post versus the consolidated reviews of all the shows I watched over this winter break that’ll be posted in a couple of weeks. So this post will generally cover the one and a half seasons I saw and includes the things I liked and the stories I’m very excited for. But first, a quick summary…

Oliver Queen was a spoiled son of a major CEO in Starling City. When he goes on a boat ride with his father, the ship gets capsized and Oliver ends up on an island where he is forced to survive for five years. Here, he learned tools of survival while being confronted with life threatening situations. When he is found and returned to Starling City, he is a new man, charged with a mission to cleanse his decaying city. To do this, he becomes a vigilante, inspiring fear into the criminals who have plagued Starling City for too long. However, Oliver’s past comes back to haunt him. His five years on the island include baggage that affects his family and work. How does he systematically take back his city? Watch Arrow on the CW to find out.

It’s winter break from my University which means I’m home and have nothing to do. So naturally I watch as much television as can be permitted. My long list of television is ever expanding and I spend more than a normal amount of time trying to shorten it, but if often gets longer and longer. This winter break is a time for shortening the list considerably before I get responsibilities again [ugh, School]. So here’s my list of TV to watch, I often update what I’m watching in my Twitter, so be sure to follow it if you wanna chime in some suggestions as I live tweet these sum-bitches.